DWTS Season 35 Viral Hits Night: Scores, Eliminations, and Fan Vote Surge

Key points

• Conner Leavitt was eliminated after the male celebrities performed on Tuesday, while Sarah Jane Nader was eliminated following the women's performance on Wednesday.
• Jenna Dewan and Val Chmerkovskiy, Ezra Frech and Daniella Karagach, and Amber Glenn and Pasha Pashkov all scored 21/30, tying for the top score of the night.
• Giada De Laurentiis and Alan Bersten, along with Guillermo Rodriguez and Witney Carson, received the lowest scores at 12/30 each.
• Alfonso Ribeiro announced that the episode received more fan votes than the two-night premiere combined.
• The remaining 14 celebrities include Tatyana Ali, Tyler Cameron, Giada De Laurentiis, Jenna Dewan, Ezra Frech, Amber Glenn, Taylor Hanson, Maura Higgins, Ciara Miller, Jackson Olson, Guillermo Rodriguez, Harry Shum Jr., Julia Stiles, and Connor Wood.

Background

Season 35 began with a two-night premiere in mid-September, where the first eliminations were Conner Leavitt and Sarah Jane Nader. The premiere drew 6.67 million viewers, the highest debut since 2020, though it was disrupted by a voting outage that forced a switch to text voting. This week marked the transition to the standard single-night competition format.

How outlets are covering it

The Hollywood Reporter provided detailed scoring breakdowns and noted the record-breaking fan vote totals. Yahoo's coverage focused primarily on the elimination outcomes, confirming that two celebrities were sent home during the week but offering less detail on the specific scores or the voting surge. Both sources agree on the identities of the eliminated contestants and the top-scoring couples.

Why it matters

The surge in fan votes indicates growing audience engagement for the season, while the elimination of two high-profile contestants early in the competition sets the pace for the remaining weeks. The 'Viral Hits Night' theme reflects the show's strategy to leverage current internet trends to maintain relevance and viewer interest.

What to watch

The remaining 14 couples will continue competing in subsequent weeks, with eliminations determined by a combination of judges' scores and viewer votes. The next episode will likely feature a new theme as the field narrows toward the final stages of the season.